No charges can be levied on the customer for availing of the e-mandate facility for recurring transactions. 

Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday issued the ‘Digital Payments – E-mandate Framework, 2026,’ whereby customers opting for e-mandates must complete a one-time registration process that requires additional factor authentication (AFA), and issuers will be required to send a pre-transaction notification at least 24 hours before a charge/ debit and a post-transaction notification.

The framework, which consolidates existing guidelines and introduces a comprehensive set of rules to govern recurring digital transactions across payment systems, has also fixed transaction limits and velocity check.

So, all recurring transactions may be authorised without AFA up to ₹15,000 per transaction. Transactions above this amount will be subject to AFA.

Further, payment of insurance premiums, subscription to mutual funds, and credit card bill payments may be made without AFA up to ₹1,00,000/- per transaction.

The RBI emphasised that no charges can be levied on the customer for availing of the e-mandate facility for recurring transactions. In the case of cards, existing e-mandate(s) can be mapped to re-issued cards.

Additional factor authentication

Under the framework, the e-mandate will be registered only after successful validation of AFA, in addition to the normal process required by the issuer.

Every e-mandate registered by the issuer will specify the validity period of the e-mandate. The issuer will provide the customer a facility to modify the validity period or withdraw the e-mandate at any point of time.

The e-mandate may be for either a pre-specified fixed amount or for a variable amount subject to the overall cap fixed by the RBI, according to the Framework.

In the case of variable e-mandates, the issuer will provide the customer a facility to specify the maximum value of any recurring transaction.

The customer will be given the facility to choose or change a mode among available options (SMS, email, etc.) for receiving the pre-transaction notification from the issuer. Any modification in, or withdrawal of, an existing e-mandate will require AFA validation by the issuer.

Pre & post-transaction notification

The pre and post-transaction notification will, at the minimum, inform the customer about the merchant’s name, transaction amount, date/ time of debit, reference number of e-mandate, reason for debit, i.e., e-mandate registered by the customer.

The issuer will provider the customer the facility to opt-out of any particular transaction or the e-mandate.

However, pre-transaction notification is not required for e-mandates registered to auto-replenish balances of FASTag, and the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC).

Dispute resolution

RBI said an appropriate dispute redressal system has to be put in place by the issuer to facilitate the customer to lodge grievance/s.

Further, its instructions on limiting the liability of customers for unauthorised transactions will be applicable to recurring transactions under e-mandates as well.

Published on April 21, 2026